Happy New Year!

Bit late, I know :)

I hope you all had a great festive time and are now staring down the new year, ready for anything it may throw at you.

2013 promises to be full of ska, with bookings for Big 10, Ska Wars & UK Ska Club already piling in.

2013 is the year that Popes of Chillitown debut album will be released. Be ready for 'A Word to the Wise'

2013 is another single from Voodoo Trombone Quartet 'Dress Down Friday'

2013 is Glasto Year!!!

2013 is a new year of teaching students everything from Ave Maria to Zoot Suit Riot.

I'll be updating my gigs page in the next few days, and also posting more info on the new Popes of Chillitown order, and how you can help to get it released.

And of course you can always find me on twitter @saxylizbeth

In the meantime, sit back and let the Monday of the year just breeze by. Listen to some of this - it will help :)

Ska News

In between preparing for a busy summer of wedding gigs and album promo,  there's a lot happening on the Ska front too.

Big 10 have finally joined the 21st century and got a twitter account! You can follow us on @big10ska for news of gigs, interesting goings-on in the van on the way to gigs and tips on keeping your Doc Martens in tip top condition.

Ok, maybe not that last bit. But you get my drift.

I'm also now full time with Ska Wars, the Ska band made up of Northern reprobates and ex-pat Northern reprobates and a few honorary Northern reprobates. You can hear me perform Baggy Trousers with them on my audio page . They're a great fun bunch with buckets of energy and a great line in audience participation.

Keep an eye on my gig page for the next Ska Wars appearance near you. These are rudeboids you were looking for.

New Ska Website

One Ska band I gig with regularly is Ska Wars, a Leeds/London based (yes, really) band who have got a shiny new website!

Lead by Bobba Fatt, we play all the regular ska covers, and a few that don't turn up in the usual 2tone set. I've been called for Horntrooper duty several times now, and I bloody love it.

I'll be gigging with them in Blackpool next month, I'll post details on my gig page as soon as they're confirmed. In the meantime check out the website www.skawars.net

Princess Limiter - A Ska Wars Adventure

In my quest to become the most sought after Tenor Sax ska dep in the country, I did my first dep gig with Ska Wars this weekend. A good bunch of mostly Northern lads, the set included such standards as Fatty Fatty, Nightboat to Cairo and Baggy Trousers, as well as the rarer Shame and Scandal. In another life (dressed as the undead) I gigged with their guitarist in the Texas Chainsaw Orchestra, but now it was out with the camp and on with the ska.

The crowd loved it, the venue did not. It seems we'd triggered a rather over zealous limiter before we'd even finished soundchecking, and by the end of 'Little Bitch' something had to give. We finished the gig with no brass mics, kick mic, or even monitors. Amps on 0.11 rather than 11, and only vox and keys through the front. Not ideal, having to hold back like that, but the audience enjoyed it, and no one had a hernia. No harm done.

I'll be depping with them again at The Nook in Holmfirth, on 29th October 2011. This is apparently a legendary Halloween gig, and it looks like I'll be dressed as the undead once again. Funny how things come back around.